Crime Baiting

[Axiomatic Wiki]

Something that has really been bothering me about my countries "justice system", is Baiting. Baiting is when police officers set up situations for crimes to be committed for the purpose of getting people to commit them and then charging them with the crimes fully. It is one step below entrapment.


For example, Officers in New York do this all the time, they leave a wallet on a chair in a train subway, and have like 3 hundred dollar bills sticking out of it. If someone grabs this wallet, and does not take it to lost and found, they are arrested as soon as they leave the train station. They create impossible situations that would rarely ever normally exist, and in the end, they criminalize someone who did something almost anyone, including these officers themselves most likely, if they found themselves in the same situation would have done, and people here get arrested for it all the time.


I am not trying to say that the people who take these wallets are good, or justified, just that they react the same way anyone who just found a hundred dollar bill on the ground would react. They take it. Because of this they are heavily criminalized.

Five minutes ago, I watched an episode of cops, where they left this bike out to see if someone would take it. It looked like a normal bicycle, but it was actually worth 300 dollars, and because of this someone who took it would be charged with a felony, meaning that their life as a regular citizen of the US is over and they will forever be labeled as a criminal, for the rest of their life.


Well, that said, my opinion on this subject is pretty obvious, what is your opinion? Do you think things like this benefit society? Are they just? Are they warranted?